The Persecution and Death of Older Practitioner Ms. Zhao Tingyun from Henan Province

1. The Death of Ms. Zhao Tingyun

On January 6th, 2006, personnel from the Xinxiang City 610 Office¹ of Henan Province, and police broke into practitioner Li Beiping's home and arrested Li Beiping, Ms. Pan Xuehui (nursemaid), and Zhao Qing, who were present at the time. The police illegally confiscated computers, printers, cash, CDs and other materials. They also pried open the lock to Li Beiping's garage downstairs and snatched a lot of Li's personal possessions. Prior to the police's break-in, practitioner Ms. Zhao Tingyun was going to visit Li Beiping and was thus arrested outside Li's home by the police.

The four practitioners mentioned above were locked up in the Xinxiang City Detention Centre. On the same afternoon, practitioners Huang Zhiqiang and Li Xiurong, who are a married couple, were also arrested and their home was ransacked. Their whereabouts are still unknown.

On the evening of January 6th, 2006, a group of people from Muye Police Branch ransacked Zhao Tingyun's home and confiscated Falun Gong books, and equipment, leaving a mess behind them. Those conducting the ransacking were Captain Qian from the Muye Police Branch and two section chiefs. Zhao Tingyun's husband, Liu Anyun, who is not a Falun Gong practitioner, was also arrested and taken to Factory 760's visitors' boarding house, where he was detained for three days and two nights. In January 8th, he was transferred and detained in the detention centre.

On January 10th, practitioners Li Beiping and Zhou Qing returned to their homes. Practitioners Ms. Zhao Tingyun and Ms. Pan Xuehui started a hunger strike in protest, and by January 13th, after 7 days of being on the hunger strike, their health conditions were severe. Zhao Tingyun was force-fed on January 10th and then on January 13th, with one force-feeding in both the morning and afternoon of both days.

After the brutal force-feeding, Zhao Tingyun started to vomit blood. Around one o'clock on the morning of January 15th, the inmates in Room no. 15 where Ms. Zhao was locked up shouted, "She is dead!"

On the evening of January 15th, Zhao Tingyun's husband, Liu Anyun was released. Pan Xuehui was also released on the same day. By the time her husband was released, Zhao Tingyun had been already tortured to death by police officers.

Zhao's husband, Liu Anyun signed an autopsy report but was not allowed to see his wife's body. The autopsy was performed by the Xinxiang City School of Medicine. Zhao's family requested to see her body, but they were denied by the police without any reason.

2. The Harassment, Detention and Persecution Suffered by Ms. Zhao

Ms. Zhao Tingyun, 54 years old, was an employee of Xinxiang City Passenger Vehicle Factory in Henan Province. After she started practising Falun Gong in 1998, both her mental and physical health were significantly better. Over the past few years of persecution, Ms. Zhao was harassed and detained multiple times by the police and other government officials for being persistent in her practice of Falun Gong.

On May 13th, 2000, Zhao Tingyun, together with over 100 fellow practitioners from Xinxiang City, publicly practised the Falun Gong exercises in front of the Culture Palace. She was arrested by the city police from Xinhui Police Station. The police inflicted all kinds of abuse on Zhao Tingyun, including cursing, threatening, slapping her on the face and hanging her in the air by her hands. Zhao Tingyun was handcuffed and hung on the banister of the staircase for 10 days and 10 nights. She was not allowed to sleep. Her feet swelled so badly that she could not wear any shoes. Her wrists had open flesh and oozed blood due to the handcuffing. Her hands swelled badly, were black and blue and became numb.

In order to appeal for Falun Gong to high-level government officials and to defend the good reputation of Teacher Li and Falun Gong, Zhao Tingyun went to Beijing three times in July, October and December of 2000. The police from Beijing Tiananmen Police Branch beat her unconscious on the spot and illegally detained her. During the detention, Ms. Zhao was frequently cursed, beaten, subjected to electric shocks, exposed to the hot sun, and handcuffed and shackled.

On November 7th, 2002, the police arrested Zhao Tingyun on the street. They stole her keys and ransacked her home. Zhao Tingyun was sent to the detention centre, where she went on a hunger strike for 35 days before being sentenced to 3 years of forced labour. When she was transferred to the forced labour camp, the camp authorities refused to take her because of her poor physical condition. Then she was sent back to the detention centre, which also refused to take her back. Thus, she was released.

On the morning of June 19th, 2003, the political instructor of the local police station led a group of people and broke into Zhao Tingyun's home. They arrested her and put her in an iron cage in the police station. On the afternoon of the same day, four people from Yanjin County Public Security Bureau took Ms. Zhao to the Yanjin County Public Security Bureau, where she was beaten and detained for 12 days. Afterwards, she was released.

During the Chinese New Year period of 2005, Zhao Tingyun's family visited her hometown. On their way back home, Zhao Tingyun distributed CDs that contained materials explaining the facts about Falun Gong. Someone reported her to the authorities, and she was arrested and sent to Xinxiang City Detention Centre, where she was detained for 6 days before being released.

On January 6th, 2006, Zhao Tingyun went to visit a fellow practitioner. She was arrested right outside the fellow practitioner's home and detained in the Xinxiang City Detention Centre. In only 9 days, she was tortured to death by the evil communist party thugs. Currently (at the time of writing this report), Zhao Tingyun's body is at the Xinxiang City Funeral Home.

Contact information of the perpetrators:

Xinxiang City Municipal Office: 86-373-2047816
Xinxiang City mayor's office: 86-373-2022611
Xinxiang City Communist Party Committee: 86-373-2032635 (Office)
Xinxiang City 610 Office: 86-373-5030600
Xiao Yukui, head of the city 610 Office: 86-373-2026482 (Office)
Xianxiang City Public Security Bureau: 86-373-5029909 or 86-373-5030531

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/1/27/119583.html